Surprise deaths of babies under investigation
By Wang Xu (Shanghai Star)
Updated: 2004-11-09 15:12

Five newly born babies receiving intensive care died during the night between October 31 and November 1 at Shanghai Children's Hospital on Beijing Xi Lu. Local police and officials from the Shanghai Health Bureau are now investigating the cause of their deaths, but no conclusion has been released to date.

A hospital insider, who asked to remain anonymous, said the five babies had been kept in the same ward of an intensive care unit before their surprise deaths. All were in serious condition when they were sent to the hospital, the source added.

The five infants were all born prematurely and they each had a lower than normal birth weight of less than 2 kilograms, with the smallest one weighing only 1.1 kilograms, the local Shanghai Evening Post reported on November 1, citing an unidentified official at the Shanghai Children's Hospital.

Three of the babies were already in critical condition when they arrived at the hospital, as their brains and respiratory systems were under-developed, the paper said.

The other two had gone through several emergency treatments before November 1 and had recovered a bit. However, they were still not in stable condition, the official was quoted as saying.

The babies were transferred from several maternity hospitals in the city and other provinces to Shanghai Children's Hospital, which is devoted to child health care and is equipped with some of the most advanced medical facilities in the country.

The hospital declined to disclose the exact dates when the five babies were sent to Shanghai Children's Hospital.

Hospital officials confirmed the deaths on November 2, but refused to comment publicly. Meanwhile the city's health care regulator also declined to give any information, saying that they were still investigating the issue.

Hospital authorities had wanted to conduct autopsies on the five in an aim to determine the causes of death, but the parents of two babies refused to agree to the procedure, a local newspaper reported on November 2, without citing any source.

The hospital authorities have required all of their staff to keep silent about the issue during the investigation, an insider was quoted as saying.

A pediatrician at another local children's hospital said the difficulty of treating such newborns was due to their under-developed immune systems. "In addition, newborns are unable to speak to us to describe their symptoms, which causes extra difficulty for the diagnosis," said the doctor.

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